Reformat the Planet, from 2 Player Productions is a documentary film about the chiptune movement, “a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using old video game hardware” or what I like to call, music that is nostalgic as shit.

REFORMAT THE PLANET is a feature length documentary which delves into the movement known as chip tunes, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using old video game hardware. Familiar devices such as the Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System are pushed in new directions with startling results.

Using New York as a microcosm for a larger global movement, “Reformat the Planet” maps out the genesis of the first annual Blip Festival, a four day celebration of over 30 international artists exploring the untapped potential of low-bit video game consoles. With floor-stomping rhythms and fist-waving melodies, trailblazers of the chip tune idiom descend upon Manhattan to pen a new chapter in the history of electronic music.

The trailer features music by Nullsleep (“Salvation for a Broken Heart”, “On Target”), Martin Galway (“The Neverending Story”), and Random (“Micawber’s Moan”), all composed on classic video game consoles.

The DVD can be pre-ordered today from Fangamer and will be released on August 24th, 2010. Below are some additional chiptune renditions of mainstream music featuring various urban artists (Jay-Z, Twista, T.I., Jamie Fox, Ludacris, Kanye West, etc.) and Depeche Mode. from Tugboat and Nullsleep.

Guesswho, Whatzisface, Harry Fraud, and DJ Buffalo are No Question? MC’s/producers from Brooklyn, New York, NY and Got Game? is a Hip-Hop project with 8bit/Chiptune/Nintendo inspired instrumentals they made in 2008, but was shelved for one reason or another. Recently, the guys at NYC venue The Yolk met up with Guesswho and asked if they could help release it to the ears of the world. Guesswho obliged and the unmastered mix was released through the website, http://www.nintendomixtape.com.

You may remember Stage7 from my previous posting of his chiptune/8bit cover of the Daft Punk song Superheroes in the Da Chip! write-up. He intended to release the song with the Barry Manilow sample from the original intact for the compilation but couldn’t due to a reasonable no-sampling clause in the Da Chip! project rules. In a comment, he supplied a link to the original describing it as an “improved version of Superheroes that contains [the Manilow] sample (AND the rimshot in the beginning)” The sample kind of reminds me of the Skate or Die 2 synthesized voice.

This tribute, titled Da Chip! is a project spearheaded by a French musician by the name Je deviens dj en 3 jours that consists of video game music (chiptune) inspired remakes of Daft Punk songs from various chiptune composers. It’s awesome; so awesome that I just danced to it in my room by myself for about 15 minutes straight but then again, I also have a soft spot for video games and chiptune music while also being a fan of Daft Punk. Outside of the links to download the tribute and the bonus tracks, I’ve selected a few tracks that can be listened to from this blog entry. The webpage for the project is located at http://jedeviensdjen3jours.com/dachip.

The first song I chose is from UK chiptune musician, Microchip‘s rendition of One More Time from DP’s Discovery album. It makes me feel nostalgic to the times I used to watch the skateboard video, Chomp On This (which happened to have somewhat a video game inspired theme to it, via it’s use of Pac Man imagery) everyday after school before going skateboarding.

The second track, covering Daft Punk’s Superheroes, from Spanish artist, Stage7 translates the Barry Manilow sample driven song into bleep-bloopy goodness. It also makes me think DP sampled the title track from the Super Nintendo game, Top Gear, for the bridge of the song even more. (Seems also the sound has also been used in the band Muse song Bliss.)

I’ve had this song lingering in my iTunes for years. I have no clue where I found it except that it was labeled as “Lankizzle Remix” and a Google search for Lankizzle comes up with a few, songs, from a mixtape titled Lankizzle Presents Video Game Remixes V2 that contained rap acapellas over beats that contained samples from classic video games. The song featued in this Mash-Up Monday is a combination of the vocals from Lil’ John and The East Side Boyz’ “Throw It Up” (Feat. Young Buck & Pastor Troy) mixed with a beefed-up version of the Koji Kondo composed Sanctuary area music from The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past on the Super Nintendo. I hope to stumble across both of Lankizzle’s VG Remixes mixtapes one day.